Comment: The following article appeared in the Cyprus Mail of Nicosia on 8 May 2003

Turkish Cypriots beginning to look for jobs in south

A
HANDFUL of Turkish Cypriots have already begun visiting job centres in
the south, a source at the Labour Ministry said yesterday.

A large influx of Turkish Cypriots job-seekers was anticipated by
the authorities, after the partial easing of restrictions on the freedom
of movement was announced by the Turkish Cypriot side on April 22.

Nicosia District Labour Officer Fidias Panayides said yesterday
that around 15 Turkish Cypriots had come to register for jobs so far. He
stressed that the figure was relatively low so far, largely due to the
nature of the registration procedure, which requires applicants to have a
Cyprus identity card and passport.

“Only a few people came to be registered because some of them went
to get a Cyprus identity card or passport first. Our computerised system
requires passport and I.D numbers,” he said. “So, yesterday only two
people came to register; the day before that only three people – they
come in small numbers. They come to register first and if we have
vacancies we offer them jobs.”

Panayides added that the district office had introduced a
Turkish-speaking officer to help Turkish Cypriots register.

Asked how many jobs had been taken up by Turkish Cypriots from the
north so far, he said: “we found about five people jobs so far. Most of
these were in the building industry in Nicosia.”

Panayides said the Ministry was expecting the number of job-seekers
from the occupied areas to increase in the next few weeks.

The opening of the checkpoints has led employers’ organisations on
both sides of the divide to reassess their positions.

The President of the Cyprus Employers and Industrialists
Federation, Byron Kranidiotis, told the Cyprus Mail that his
organisation had already been in contact with the respective federation
in the breakaway north.

“We had a meeting three weeks ago with the Employers’ Federation on
the other side,” he said, adding that the Turkish Cypriot federation
downplayed suggestions that Turkish Cypriots would flock to the more
affluent south in search of better-paid jobs.

“When we mentioned the idea of employing labour from the north in
the south, they said ‘we don’t have available labour’. I mentioned that
the rules of economy would unfold, and that nobody could go against
these – if there is a salary three times as high in the south, naturally
it will draw people from the north. They said if this was the case,
they would be forced to employ foreign labour from the Turkish
mainland,” he added.

Several hundred Turkish Cypriots have been working in the building
industry in the free areas of Ayia Napa and Protaras, even before the
checkpoints were opened, crossing through the checkpoint at Pergamos
into the British bases.

Kranidiotis added that now that Cyprus was a European Union member,
any shortage of labour in the free areas could be easily met by
employing foreigners from within EU countries.

“We can get the labour we need from the EU – we are in touch with
Poland now,” he said. “Poland has a high rate of unemployment.”

Antonis Petasis, Director of Social Insurance Services at the
Labour Ministry, confirmed yesterday that several Turkish Cypriots had
enquired about what benefits they could expect if they took up jobs in
the south.

“Some asked about old age pensions, others about providence funds
and annual leave,” he said.

He added that one individual from the north had even requested his
social security benefit ‘owed’ to him from before the invasion in 1974.

“But benefits usually only go back three months. If there is a very
serious reason to, we may go back one or two years, at the most,”
Petasis said, adding that members of both the Greek and Turkish Cypriot
communities would be entitled to the same benefits, as Cypriot citizens.